Friends are There for a Reason
by The Alice Killer - Storm
Summary: Dia is a trans girl. She is constantly picked on at school. Aqours can't bear to let that continue, so they step in and change it.


"Ne, who's the new kid?" A blue-haired girl whispered to the blonde-haired girl beside her.

"I think his name is Dai." The other girl replied.

"We should go say hi. He looks lonely."

"Kanan… I think he wants to be alone."

"But, Mari! No one should be alone!" Kanan protested.

"Fine… let's go say hi." Mari agreed.

Mari and Kanan got up from the table they were sitting at and walked over to where the new kid was sitting. He was sitting in a corner looking at a book.

"Hello. You're new here, right? My name's Kanan and this is Mari." Kanan greeted him.

The kid hesitantly looked up at the two of them, "H-hi?"

"You were all by yourself, so I thought you'd might like some company." Kanan said as she took a seat beside him.

Mari sat down as well. The kid looked uncomfortable. He wasn't used to many people being around him. That was why he chose this seat to begin with.

"Your name is Dai, right?" Mari asked.

He shook his head, "N-no… I… I don't like that name…"

"Why not?" Kanan asked.

"I… it's a boy's name… I… I'm not a boy. I'm a girl." The kid stated as confidently as she could.

"Oh. So what's your name then?" Kanan didn't think anything of the statement.

"U-um… Dia." The kid replied.

"Nice to meet you, Dia." Kanan smiled, "Would you like to be our friend?"

Dia glanced at a Kanan and Mari. She didn't know if she wanted that. It seemed like they were a lot more hyper than she was.

"S-sure…" Dia was too shy to say no to them.

"Yay! We're gonna be best friends forever!"

Years had passed since that day. The three of them had stayed close. They were inseparable. Wherever one went, the others followed. That meant even to high school. That proved to be a bit of a struggle. Dia was unsure if she would be allowed to apply for an all girls school.

Thanks to Mari's family having a lot of power over the school, Dia was allowed to take the entrance exam. All three of them passed and made it in. Unfortunately, some students didn't like that Dia was in the school. They didn't see her as a girl. They saw her as a boy.

Dia got picked on a lot. All the work Kanan and Mari had put into making Dia less shy was gone in less than a day. She went back to being shut off and a loner. Dia didn't speak at all that day. She kept to herself and out of the way.

Kanan and Mari were both worried about her. They wanted her to feel more confident. That was the whole reason they fought to get her the ability to take the exam. They wanted her to feel confident in who she was. But, thanks to the other students, that wasn't working any longer.

This continued throughout Dia's first and second year. And now she was in her third year. It was the first day of school. Dia was dreading it. She didn't want to go. She knew she'd be picked on and bullied like usual.

Kanan and Mari somehow managed to convince Dia to run for the Student Council. Mari was the director of the school already. Dia did run. She somehow made it in. As the president, nonetheless. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the bullies.

Now, let's go to the present day.

Dia was in the Student Council room. It was lunch time. She was doing some paperwork. A knock sounded on the other side of the door.

"Come in." Dia called.

An orange-haired girl walked in. She nervously walked over to Dia. She had a paper in her hands. She handed it over to Dia. Dia looked the paper over. It was a form for a new club.

"You want to create a school idol club?" Dia asked.

"Yes." The girl nodded.

"What's your name?" Dia asked.

"Takami Chika." She replied.

"I guess I'll consider it. I'll have my answer by the end of school. I need to do some research to make sure this club will work." Dia said.

"Okay! Thank you, Kurosawa-san." Chika bowed.

"Dia is fine." Dia replied.

When school had ended, Chika went to find Dia. She didn't find her in the Council room. She went searching elsewhere.

Dia was being cornered by some of the bullies who had been that way since she started school. They were taunting her. No one was getting physical quite yet. There was a chance that could happen.

Chika found her. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the scene. That was not what she had been expecting to find. Chika didn't know what to do. She knew she couldn't just do nothing.

"Why haven't you gotten the hint and left already! No one wants you here!" One of the bullies yelled at Dia.

"Yeah, no one wants a boy in this school!" Another agreed.

"Go kill yourself, you tranny!" Another one said.

Dia was on the verge of tears. They kept hurling slurs and insults at her. Chika could hear everything. She was a little confused by what they were saying. Then, it clicked in her head as to what they were talking about.

Chika took a deep breath and then ran toward the girls, "Leave her alone!"

The bullies ran off. They were too afraid to let anyone see them. They didn't want to get caught. Chika looked at Dia. Dia wouldn't look at her.

"Are you alright?" Chika asked.

Dia nodded. She didn't know what to do. She was unsure how Chika felt about her now. She didn't even know if Chika knew what they were talking about.

"You're trans?" Chika hesitantly asked.

Dia gulped and nodded. Chika didn't know what overcame her, but she found herself hugging Dia. Dia tensed up.

"It's okay. I don't mind." Chika said.

At those words, Dia broke down into sobs. No one new had accepted her in such a long time. She had lost hope that that would ever happen again. Chika wasn't sure how to react. She just kept hugging Dia as she cried.

"Are you okay?" Chika asked.

Dia sniffled and nodded, "Y-yeah… it's just that… no one's accepted me in ages…"

Chika frowned. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. It made her feel really bad. Chika decided to try something. She didn't know how it would go over.

"Um… would you like to join the idol group? If it's been accepted." Chika asked, "I promise everyone in the group will accept you for who you are."

"I… I don't know… you'll make enemies in this school if you do that…" Dia mumbled.

"Then so be it." Chika stated, "I'm not letting some close-minded assholes ruin everything."

Dia smiled. It had been a long time since she had done that. Chika took that as a sign that she was going to join. They separated after a few minutes. Dia led Chika back to the Council room. She pulled out the form and looked at it.

Dia hesitated, before she grabbed a pen and wrote her name onto the member list. Chika smiled. She felt like she had done a good thing. Now, she just had to make sure none of the other members did have any problems. Chika felt stupid now. She should've checked with them before she offered.

Dia approved the club. Then, she got up. She was going to go home. She had nothing more to do in the room. Chika walked with her to the front of the school. They went separate directions after that. Chika went to go find the rest of the members and make sure everything was good with them. Dia started walking home.

"Dia-san! Wait up!"

Dia paused and turned around. Kanan was running to catch up with her. It didn't take very long for her to get to where Dia stood.

"I thought we could hang out." Kanan stated.

"S-sure." Dia agreed.

Kanan frowned. Whenever Dia tended to stammer her words, that normally meant something had happened in the past hour or so. Kanan wrapped an arm around Dia's shoulders and they started walking again.

"What's up? Did something happen?" Kanan asked, though she knew the answer was yes.

Dia nodded, "Y-yeah…"

"What happened?" Kanan asked. She wanted more detail just in case she was able to do something about it.

"Those g-girls… they… they cornered me after class…" Dia mumbled.

"Did they hurt you?" Kanan looked Dia over with a worried expression.

"N-no… someone chased them off…"

"Really?" Kanan was surprised by that.

Dia nodded, "She… she's really nice… she actually accepted me…"

"That's good." Kanan smiled.

"Yeah… I didn't think anyone in the school would…" Dia sighed.

"Welp, you've been proven wrong." Kanan stated.

Dia nodded. It wasn't long before they reached her house. The two of them went up to Dia's room. Dia changed out of her uniform. She was still self-conscious about changing in front of other people.

"So, have you done anything recently?" Kanan asked. She was always pestering Dia to put herself out there a little bit more and join a club.

"Yeah… um, I've joined a club…" Dia nodded.

"Really!?" Kanan was very happy and surprised, "What is it? I wanna join so I can be with you."

"I-it's a… a school idol club." Dia stammered.

"How on earth did you end up joining a club like that?" Kanan asked.

"Well… that girl… she created it and she, um, she asked me to join… she said all the members would accept me…" Dia mumbled.

"Oh. Well, introduce me to her tomorrow. I want to join. I want to stay with you just in case." Kanan said.

"Okay… what about Mari?" Dia asked.

"I bet she'll want to join as well. I can talk to her later and ask." Kanan replied.

Dia was extremely nervous to go to the first meeting for the club. She didn't know what to expect. She was afraid. Kanan was right beside her as they stood outside the room. Mari had already gone in a while ago.

"Come on, Dia-san. You'll be fine." Kanan said.

Dia took a deep breath and then opened the door. She walked inside with Kanan right behind her. The members of the club looked their way. Dia gulped as she stood still. She didn't know what to do.

"Hi! You guys made it! Come take a seat." Chika took the initiative and welcomed them.

Dia nervously walked over and took a seat next to someone she didn't know. Kanan sat beside her. Everyone went around the room and introduced themselves. The members were named Yoshiko, Yō, and Riko. Chika was trying to get more people to join.

The meeting was pretty simple. They just discussed everything they were going to be doing. Dia was slowly loosening up. She hadn't had anyone say anything to her. It was interesting.

The meeting ended after an hour and everyone went their own ways. Dia said she was staying for a little longer to go and do some work. They let her go. Dia went to her office and sat down. She sighed as she looked at the pile of work on her desk. She was not looking forward to having to do all of it.

Dia saw a note on her desk. She didn't remember leaving anything there. She picked it up and read it. It was a note from one of the bullies. They were calling her slurs again and telling her to die. Dia felt tears forming in her eyes. She threw the note away.

Dia started crying. She couldn't take it. She just wanted to live a normal life and instead she ended up with this. Dia stood up from her desk and left the room. She wasn't going to get any work done at this rate anyway. Dia went to her house and locked herself in her room without a word to anyone.

She sobbed into her pillows. Dia didn't know how much more of this she could take. It was starting to become too much for her to handle.

A few weeks had passed. The idol group ended up with some more members. Hanamaru had joined. Ruby also had joined. She wanted to be there with Dia just like Kanan had wanted to. That was the one place Dia felt happy. They all saw her for who she was. It was nice.

But, once they left, things weren't so nice. Today was another one of those days. Dia was leaving the school after doing some work. She was about to leave when her bullies cornered her again.

Dia was backed into a wall with no way to escape. She was afraid. They looked worse than normal.

"You've actually made friends, huh?" One taunted.

"You're probably thinking about fucking them, aren't you?" Another called.

"You're a horrible person! You should just die already!" Someone else called.

They ganged up on her and started beating her up. Dia cried in pain. She was trying to defend herself, but it wasn't working at all. After what seemed like forever, they left her alone. Dia shakily stood up and ran home. She was sobbing the entire time.

No one was home but her. Dia ran up to her room. She slammed her door shut and started crying louder. She couldn't do it anymore. It was too much. She couldn't handle it.

Dia walked to her closet. She had rope in there. She had kept it there for a long time. She had considered this before. Dia took the rope and started tying it. She tied it to her closet. Dia hesitated. She knew this would be painful.

She went to her desk and grabbed a piece of paper. She scribbled down something that was meant to be her suicide note. It was very messy, unlike her normal handwriting. Dia couldn't stop her hands from shaking. Once she was satisfied, she left the note right outside of the closet and then got ready.

She was going to do it. She couldn't take it any longer. It was too much. She felt like she'd never be truly happy. Dia took a deep breath and then let herself fall into the noose. She let out a choked gag.

It was a lot more painful than she thought it was going to be. It took only a few minutes for her to pass out.

Beep beep

Dia woke up to a monitor beeping. She groggily opened her eyes. She was in a lot of pain. Her neck was hurting a lot. Dia slowly pushed herself into a sitting position. She looked around the room. It didn't take long for her to realize she was in the hospital.

Dia knew that meant she had been found before she died. She wondered who it was that found her. She soon got her answer. Someone knocked to her room. Dia looked over at the door. Mari entered the room. She looked relieved to see that Dia was awake.

Mari ran over to Dia and hugged her. She was careful not to be too forceful. She didn't want to hurt Dia. Dia hugged her back.

"Why? Why did you do that?" Mari asked as she started crying, "I thought I was going to lose you!"

"I'm sorry…" Dia whispered.

"What happened?" Mari asked.

"Those girls… I can't take it anymore!" Dia cried, "I can't handle it…"

"Why didn't you say something to us?"

"What can you do?" Dia asked, a bitter tone in her voice.

"I'm going to do something about them. I promise." Mari stated.

Dia didn't say anything after that. She stared down at the bed. Mari sighed and sat down on the bed. Dia didn't acknowledge her.

"Dia?" Mari called, "What's bothering you?"

"I wish I had died." Dia whispered.

"No. You don't wish that!" Mari raised her voice, "That's not going to solve anything!"

"For me it would." Dia replied flatly.

"No it wouldn't. You'd regret it." Mari defended.

"I don't regret what I did." Dia stated.

Mari didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure what she could say to convince Dia otherwise. Mari texted Kanan and asked her to come over. She hoped Kanan could help out. Mari looked at Dia. She was staring down at the bed with a blank and lifeless expression.

Mari hugged Dia, "Please… I need you… you can't leave…"

"You have other people…"

"So do you. What about Aqours? You like them all, don't you?" Mari asked.

"They probably wouldn't care if I died." Dia replied tartly.

Mari pulled her phone back out and texted the other members of Aqours and asked them to come over as well. She wanted to prove to Dia that that wasn't true. She couldn't bear to let Dia believe those things. She wanted Dia to see the truth.

"I'll prove you wrong." Mari stated.

"You can't. Because I'm not wrong." Dia replied.

Mari frowned. Dia sighed. Mari kissed Dia on the head. There was a knock on the door. Kanan came into the room along with Ruby.

"Onee-chan!" Ruby cried as she ran over to Dia.

Mari stepped back. Dia held out her arms. Ruby ran into them and hugged her. She was crying. Dia felt tears forming in her eyes. She was starting to feel a little bit of regret for what she did. She forgot how much Ruby depended on her.

"Onee-chan…" Ruby sobbed as she looked up at Dia, "Why'd you do this?"

"I'm sorry…" Dia whispered.

"You can't leave me! I need you!" Ruby cried as she buried her face into Dia's shirt.

Dia pulled Ruby into a tight hug, "I won't leave you, I promise…"

Mari and Kanan looked at each other. They smiled. Ruby was enough to convince Dia she was wrong to think the way she was. A soft knock sounded on the door. The rest of Aqours had made it.

Mari waved them in and motioned for them to be quiet. They all walked in. Everyone watched as Dia and Ruby had their moment. Dia and Ruby were still hugging. Both of them were crying.

"Did I prove you wrong?" Mari asked as they finally pulled away.

Dia looked over at Mari. Her eyes widened as she saw that everyone was in the room now. She quickly moved her gaze down to the bed. She couldn't bring herself to look at them. She felt bad now.

"Dia-san, tell us what we can do to make sure this doesn't ever happen again." Kanan asked.

Dia didn't say anything. She still refused to look at them. Mari walked over to Dia. She sat down on the bed beside her.

"Do you want us to make sure you're never alone? Will that help?" Mari asked.

Dia shrugged as she curled up. Mari sighed. This wasn't uncommon. Dia would often refuse to talk when in a very emotional situation. Mari handed Dia her phone. It was open to a note app.

Dia stared at it blankly for a bit. She eventually took the phone and started typing something on it. Everyone waited patiently for her to finish. They knew better than to rush her. Even if they weren't as familiar with the signs Dia gave off as Kanan, Mari, and Ruby were, they still could recognize what was appropriate to do in each situation.

Dia handed Mari her phone back. Mari read over what Dia had typed out on it. Everyone waited anxiously for Mari to relay the message to them.

"She wants what I suggested." Mari said.

Everyone agreed to it. They were all perfectly fine with doing that. Everyone wanted Dia to feel okay. They would do whatever they could to make that happen.

Dia was released from the hospital a week later. Today was her first day back at school. Mari had slept over for the night. Dia, Mari, and Ruby walked to school together. Dia was extremely nervous about going back. She didn't know what to expect.

Ruby held one of Dia's hands suddenly. Dia looked down at her. Ruby smiled up at her. Dia hesitated, before she smiled back at Ruby. She wanted to appear brave.

It wasn't too long before they made it to school. There were a lot of students around. Dia kept her gaze down. She didn't want to look at anyone. Mari and Ruby guided Dia through the crowd and into the school.

They went to the club room. Everyone was waiting for them. They weren't planning to do anything today. They just wanted to meet up to make sure Dia was doing alright.

It wasn't too long after that they had to go to their classrooms. Mari and Kanan went and led Dia to class. Dia still refused to look up. She was too afraid to. She didn't want to see any of her bullies.

"It's okay, Dia-san." Mari reassured her, "We're not gonna let them hurt you anymore."

"Yeah. We're here. We'll protect you if they try anything." Kanan said.

Dia just meekly nodded. She was nervous still. Nothing they could say would change that at all.

School had gone by well. Dia had no issues. Someone from Aqours was always around her, so her bullies couldn't do anything. They weren't very happy about that at all.

It was after school. Dia was heading out. She was alone. She had gone to her locker, reassuring everyone that she would be fine by herself for a little bit. Dia soon regretted saying that.

Her bullies cornered her. Dia started shaking in fear. She thought she could do it. She thought she could leave the school without them trying anything. She was wrong.

"Thought you could avoid us, huh?" One of them spat at her.

Dia gulped. She backed into a wall. There was nowhere for her escape from. She was trapped. Dia felt tears forming in her eyes. She knew this beating was going to be worse than normal.

"Hey! Get away from her!"

The bullies turned to look at who had called out. They didn't think one person could stop them. However, eight people definitely could. They ran off.

Thankfully for Dia, she had been stopped close to the entrance to the school. They had seen her get cornered. They were able to save her.

Dia was about to look over at them, when suddenly arms wrapped around her. Ruby was hugging her. Dia hugged her back.

"Are you alright?" Mari asked as she walked over to them.

Dia nodded. She was alright now.

"Shall we head out then?" Chika asked.

They all agreed. They went and hung out in the downtown area. They were hanging out in a small plaza area.

"Guys… um… thank you… for, for being there for me…" Dia mumbled.

"Don't mention it. After all, that's what friends are for!"


End file.
